Great Western Coffee Shop

A photo of my local station.  One point for the country, one for the "system", one for the station.  Bonus for an explanation of the white signs on the grey plastic covers over the bottom contact third rail. 
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/U-Bahnhof_Arabellapark_01.jpg)

(not my photo but public domain)

Munich airport?

Signs poiting to the two differnt terminals?

Sorry both answers wrong. 

The first by only a few miles (I am somewhere in Munich and the airport station uses similar coloured marble, but has OLE not third rail). 
 Your second answer is completely wrong.  The signs are not conventional direction signs, but are provided to assist passengers and are a fairly successful attempt to solve a common railway problem)

Utter guess - "stand opposite here - this is where the doors will be when the train stops"?

very close but not quite

The con rail is bottom contact system covered to prevent electrocution not like out totally safe system in the UK

Except on the DLR which I think is also bottom contact.  Presumably bottom contact is also less prone to icing (although not a problem underground).  Presumably, covered con-rail track is easier to maintain because trackworkers are allowed on the track in circumstances that would be prohibited in the UK without isolating the current?

Anyway the signs on the con rail cover are nothing to do with the rail (they are not, for example, warning signs).  The signs are simply placed there because they are in a convenient and consistant place to be seen by passegers, but does anyone know what information they convey? 

nope, Grahame almost had it (but was wrong about doors)

It is a terminus as far as passengers are concerned (although trains run through to a siding or loop and reapear minutes later on the other track and there has been some talk of extending the tunnel)

'Kissing zone' ?

In that case I think the signs refer to which direction the trains depart in from each platform - I seem to remember that being fairly common

recap of answers (and a cryptic clue).

Country=Germany
City=Munich
System=?
Station=?  (or "ballpark area")
purpose of signs=?

I'll have another Weissbier and check again before bedtime

I don't doubt that the Germans have a rule about that sort of thing, but no.

Half right - The signs do tell you the direction of trains, but they do more than that.

Well, I've given up squinting at those signs in the picture, trying to work out the German - never mind translate it into English!  ::)

The system, though, is this, I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_U-Bahn  ;)

that much I did recognize ! Spent six months flying in and ou!

Correct.  The system is the Munich U-Bahn (underground), which would rule out your earlier answer of Munich Airport for the station, because that is on the S-Bahn (although they are part of the same fare system).

Someone ought to be able to figure the station name out from my earlier clue and the map at http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/3/schnellbahnnetz_2009.pdf (http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/3/schnellbahnnetz_2009.pdf)


 

Oh, I'd already worked that out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabellapark_(Munich_U-Bahn) - but I was still squinting at those ruddy signs you were asking about ...  ::) ;D

Correct.  It is Arabellapark at the end of the U4 (my clue "ballpark area" being an anagram)

Its just the signs you need to figure out now (which are by no means Unique to that station- I would suspect that they are at every U-Bahn station in the city).  The answer will come from someone who has noticed them in Munich or another German city using them, or from someone thinking laterally and extending from Grahame's very nearly right answer. 

If you could zoom into the sign you might not yet get the answer (depending on your grasp of german).  If you want to cheat and see a closeup at a different station click on http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3046129063_b92dbf7cd0.jpg?v=0  (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3046129063_b92dbf7cd0.jpg?v=0)

OK I know the answer from your "cheat" because I just googled it.. But I'll see if someone can guess it first without cheating like me...

Ach, so!  Not 'K^ssen', then?  (Just to explain the reasoning behind my previous attempt!)  ::) ;D

Looks to me like it might say Kurzzug, to tell you where the coaches of a short train will stop?

I think I agree  :)

correct. 

Trains are of different length.  Either 2 cars (kurzzug "short train"), 4 cars (vollzug "full train") or 6 cars (Langzug - "long train").  The sign marks the part of the platform where a kurzzug will stop.  This is usually nearest the entrance, but at Arabellapark it is the middle of the platform because there is an entrance at both ends.

The platform indicators will tell you the length of the next train.   

The S-Bahn has a similar system but the trains there are 4, 8 or 12 cars long.

Bollocks!

I used to stay at the Sheraton  hotel in Arabella park so used that ****damn station every mon-fri for six months!

But it was July 07-Dec 07 before I saw came across this sight - ie before the hellish TT change!



Mondays: Flughaven to Leuchtenbergring
Daily - if pissing down - Leuchtenbergring to Arabellapark - if dry - walked it - damn site quicker given the two changes
Friday: Leuchtenbergring to Flughaven

I used to have memorized the german for "the next station is  XXXXX, please alight the train from the left/right hand side"   without knowing what it meant!